Ugliest courthouse in Texas? Hardin County Courthouse might win!

(Please take this post with a grain of salt if you are from Kountze or Hardin County. Everyone I met was super nice, from the judge to the staff. Which is why I’m sad they are housed in such an ugly courthouse! The judge’s chambers didn’t even have a window 😦 Inexplicable!)

Is this a spice extract factory? No such luck.

This one is a contender in the competition for Ugliest Courthouse in Texas. Sure, it’s not the Austin County courthouse which was originally built to be a nuclear bomb shelter.

But, woah, Nelly. Woah. —->Hardin County’s courthouse is no treat. And the insides are as uggie as the outsides.

The picture above is taken from the 3rd floor looking down. Here’s the tile on the first floor:

I’ve set many a tile in my lifetime. But, I haven’t set bathroom tiles on the walls of a courthouse. The hours that went into this project v. how it came out…. All I can think of is Jarndyce v. Jarndyce and how nobody won that case.

Bleak House indeed.

My artistic goal for the day was to find her good angle. I wish I had remembered to change the format settings on my camera before I took this one. It’s *so dramatic*. Pffp. I never would have bothered printing this one out anyhow, so I guess the pixelation scarcely matters.

I spend a lot of time looking for the beauty in things. If you are a “glass half empty” type, this means I actively ignore ugly stuff.

The courthouse has a cute rotunda, which is a 2008 addition. The place sorely needed the improvement.

This is a MUCH better view of the courthouse. Not so…bleak.I do love me some lens flare. Here’s the afternoon sun on the rotunda.Floor of the rotunda.Rotunda ceiling.

There was a wedding in the rotunda today. I wish the bride and groom well. I’m glad they had a nice space to celebrate their day.